See Venice and Live

118 islands, 400 bridges, and 170 some odd canals combine to form modern day Venice, The City of Water. 

Taking the train from Florence to Venice was a short 2 hour ride, with an impressive last few minutes spent over the water as you pull into Venezia Santa Lucia station. It’s really a sight to behold, this city built on water. 

No cars, no subway, no buses, lots of walking, lots of bridges, lots of canals. It’s kind of unreal.

I lugged my suitcase across two bridges on the 12 minute long walk to my hotel, checked in, dropped off my suitcase and navigated the narrow alleyways and corridors to a bacari (a small local bar serving tapas and drinks) the receptionist at the hotel suggested. I nibbled on some simple fried cod, arancini, and drank a nice Hugo Spritz made with elderflower liquor and mint. 

I wasn’t exactly full so I tried another spot serving simple but delicious cicchetti with different meats and cheese on small slices of bread, and of course a traditional aperol spritz. For dinner I decided to try another spot the receptionist recommended, but it wasn’t very good. Honestly the food in Venice was very hit and miss.

The next day I got up early and found a laundry mat, threw my clothes in the washer, and walked over to a little cafe for some pastry and cappuccinos while I waited for my laundry to finish. I could get used to slow Italian mornings, coffee and pastry at your local cafe, outdoor seating, people watching, it ain’t so bad. 

I had a reserved entry ticket for St. Mark’s Basilica, and since I hadn’t purchased a pass for the local ferry system, I decided to walk there, about 30 minutes from my hotel (stopping about halfway to eat a pizza for lunch of course). 

St. Mark’s Basilica sits in a large square adjacent to the Doge’s Palace and the St. Mark’s Campanile. The current church is the third one built on the same site, and is almost 1,000 years old. It’s grand, opulent, and adorned with ornate gilded dome ceilings and beautiful frescoes. 

The remains of Mark the Baptist were smuggled out of Alexandria and brought back to Venice in 828 AD, where they allegedly have remained since. In addition to the remains of St. Mark, there is another famous relic housed in the church, the Horses of St. Mark. The four bronze horse statues date back to early 2nd or 3rd century AD, and were taken by Venetian forces from the Hippodrome of Constantinople in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade. As if going back to the crusades wasn’t enough history, the horses were of course pillaged from the basilica by Napoleon in 1797, taken back to Paris, and placed on the Arc de Triomphe. The horses stayed there until they were taken back to Venice in 1815 where they remained placed above St. Mark’s Basillica until the 1980s when they were moved inside the basilica and replaced with replicas to avoid damage from air pollution. 

I lucked out that evening and had a very good meal at Hostaria Osottoosopra, some wonderful spinach and mascarpone ravioli with truffle cream sauce, and some classic slow braised beef cheeks with mashed potatoes, one of the better meals I had in Venice without a doubt. 

Sufficiently fed, I made my way to the Experimental Cocktail Club and sat outside for a few cocktails. Staring at a huge yacht that may have been left over from the controversial Bezos wedding the week before, I enjoyed the complex and interesting cocktails (including one garnished with cotton candy, naturally) I realized how tired I was from walking a good 7 or so miles that day. I didn’t want to walk back to my hotel, and since an Uber boat (yes, that is a real thing) was 70 Euros, I decided that it would be worth figuring out how to use the local public transit. Seeing as it’s literally a city built on water and there are no cars, I bought a ticket for the local water ferry, which is essentially a city bus on water. To be honest I was pretty impressed. It was easy to buy a ticket from the machine, and the ferries run all night. After about a 25 minute ride I hopped off at my local canal, walked 5 minutes and was back at my hotel. A solid day in Venice.

My last day in Venice was pretty laid back. I woke up, had some coffee and pastry, eventually found a nice place for lunch and had some octopus pasta which was a bit salty, but had some very nicely cooked octopus pieces in there. I also had my final gelato in Italy, which is perhaps one of the saddest sentences I’ve ever typed. 

For dinner I had some extremely disappointing pasta at some place on a canal and only ate a quarter of it. I knew I couldn’t have my last night in Italy end with a subpar meal, and was lucky enough to snag a table at Zanze XVI and was delighted to indulge in the tasting menu.

It was the best meal I had in Italy, hands down. 

Just the bread and butter service alone was impressive. Fresh baked bread and house made kombu butter served in a glass gondola. The slight nutty flavor and lightest tint of green from the kombu was so elegant, distinct, and delicious. Their take on spaghetti alle vongole was rich, fresh, and interestingly served only slightly warm so that the sauce didn’t separate. The dessert was a light play on tiramisu, and was perfect paired with my armagnac. 

It was a proper way to end my time in Italy.